ANGLO IRISH Bankcorp makes "no apologies" for paying £1.4 million to its six executive directors last year, chairman Mr Gerard Murphy has said.
Speaking at the bank's annual general meeting in Dublin yesterday, Mr Murphy told shareholders that its directors would continue to be paid "well" so long as they produce good results and enhance its earnings. The board's aim in this regard, he added, is to "attract and keep high-calibre people who are capable of developing the bank".
Over 100 shareholders attending the hour-long meeting were told that profits are running well ahead of budget this year, with a good out-turn also expected in 1997.
Each sector of the bank's business is performing strongly in the current financial year, Mr Murphy said, predicting that shareholders will see higher dividends in 1996. "If you want me to sum up the year ahead in one word, it is optimism".
The performance of the bank's share price, however, he conceded, continues to be disappointing. "The board can only try to increase the size of the bank by 30 per cent per annum and make good acquisitions which will hopefully translate into a higher share price," Mr Murphy said. Anglo Irish was trading at 64 1/2p on the Dublin market yesterday.
Anglo Irish is recommending a final dividend of 2p per share, which with the interim dividend of 1.36p gives a total dividend of 3.36p for the year, unchanged from that paid in 1994.
Anglo Irish Bankcorp, he said, had enjoyed a decade of "substantial growth" with the bank returning profits of £19.1 million last year, compared with £286,000 in 1985.
Recent acquisitions are showing a good performance, Mr Murphy stated, while due diligence examination of the business of corporate lenders Ansbacher, which the bank has agreed in principle to buy, is "looking good".
Ansbacher Bank is understood to have a loan book of around £80 million and will have been the bank's third major acquisition in the past 12 months.
Last year, Anglo Irish paid £13 million for the Austrian subsidiary of the Royal Trust Bank of Canada. It also purchased the Allied Dunbar loan book in Britain for an estimated £61 million sterling.